John May TAYLOR, Congress, TN (1838-1911)

TAYLOR, John May, a Representative from Tennessee; born in Lexington, Henderson County, Tenn., May 18, 1838; attended the Male Academy in Lexington and the Union University, Murfreesboro, Tenn.; was graduated from the law department of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., in 1861; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Lexington; enlisted in the Confederate Army; was elected first lieutenant in June 1861 and promoted to captain; elected major in the Twenty-seventh Tennessee Regiment in 1862; mayor of Lexington in 1869 and 1870; delegate to the State constitutional convention of Tennessee in 1870; attorney general of the eleventh judicial circuit of Tennessee 1870-1878; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1880; member of the State house of representatives in 1881 and 1882; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1887); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy (Forty-ninth Congress); member of the State senate in 1892; resumed the practice of law; was appointed judge of the criminal court for the eleventh judicial circuit in 1895 and subsequently elected for a six-year term, serving until the court was abolished; elected in August 1902 as a judge of the court of chancery appeals (name changed to court of civil appeals by the legislature); reelected in 1910 for a period of eight years and served until his death; died in Lexington, Tenn., February 17, 1911; interment in Lexington Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present